Night Moves: Steve Coll Reading @ the Free Library

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Night Moves: Steve Coll Reading @ the Free Library

POSTED: Tuesday, March 31, 2009, 9:32 PM
Filed Under: Arts | Night Moves

Penguin, $18

Don't know what to do tonight? Don't worry, we've got you covered.

There hasn't been a family that's simultaneously captured America's attention and disgusted us so since the Mansons. In Coll's new book, he outlines the history of the bin Ladens, including the childhood of Osama. Here's what Shaun Brady had to say about the book in this week's Agenda section:

The New Yorker scribe tells that story with epic sweep, exhaustive research and a touch of irreverence, making for a page-turner that is nonetheless crammed with densely packed detail. It reads like a mirror history of the 20th century, alternately reflecting, echoing and rebutting the familiar western narrative. The 54 children of Mohammed bin Laden almost inevitably form a microcosm of Saudi society and undertake the same struggle between the strictures of Islam and the temptations of modernity that define the region.

The tale unfolds as a series of parallels: the rising power of the al-Saud family comes to shape the rags-to-riches journey of patriarch Mohamed bin Laden; his death leaves his sons to trace divergent paths, exemplified by his profligate, freewheeling eldest, Salem, and the black sheep — you-know-who.



Tue., March 31, 7:30 p.m., free, Free Library, Central Branch, 1901 Vine St., 215-567-4341, freelibrary.org

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